How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

Clearly shoes and textiles in general are extremely difficult to automate, but you only have to build one shoe building robot, and copy it. Why hasn’t this been done? Expecting a “too hard” answer honestly, but is it really?

Manufacturing machines are hard to invent, and harder to keep running right, and even harder to network together into an effective factory. You need skilled operators, technicians, and engineers to design and run a factory.

You also need to put down a big whack of capital upfront and will see a return years down the line, hopefully.

With low enough wages, it could easily be financially better to rent a big building in the third world and staff it with actual people.